A Weird Hillbilly's Garden

[Ninurta]

13 March 2022

10 days into the grow experiment, and ain't nothing sprouting so far but the tobacco. I may have to reconsider, and become a gentleman tobacco farmer, or tobacco magnate, or something like that, assuming the tobacco survives my not so tender touch with my brown thumb.

The "1000 year old tobacco" is sprouting and standing up pretty good, so far. So now I have two varieties of tobacco, and nothing else. I think I've figured out what those strange filaments are on the sprouts, by accident. They appear to be filamentary roots growing off of the tap root. Not all of the seed managed to make it on to peat plugs, probably due to my ham-fisted approach to planting them, and some have ended up at the bottom of the tray rather than in the dirt. This is one of those seeds. Note how the stem and cotyledons have not yet even emerged from the seed coat, yet the root and filaments are pretty well developed:




So before the plant even stands up. it looks like it is pretty well anchored due to those filaments.

That tobacco is standing up pretty now:



And nothing else is.

The quinoa is being particularly problematic. It's molding, big time. I've had to remove half of the peat plugs and quarantine them elsewhere, in another greenhouse tray, to protect the rest of the planting.

Here is my grow diary, with the expected sprouting dates:

2022 Grow Diary

2 Mar 2022 - Soaked peat pellets, started soaking hemp seeds.

3 Mar 2022 0200 - Planted hemp. Sprout expected 5-10 days (8-13 Mar)

3 Mar 2022 1300 - Planted stratified breadseed poppies. Sprout expected in 7 to 28 days. (10-31 Mar)

3 Mar 2022 1600  - Planted Midewiwin rustica. Expected to sprout in 7-14 days (10 to 17 Mar)

3 Mar 2022 1630 - Planted pampas grass. Sprout 7-14 days (10 to 17 Mar)

5 Mar 2022 1745 - Planted quinoa - "Great Value" organic white Peruvian quinoa.

6 Mar 2022 - 1416 - Midewiwin tobacco sprouting, quinoa already sending out "tails", roots to find the soil.

8 Mar 2022 - 1740 - Planted "1000 year Old" rustica. May have found a poppy sprout. re-seeded Midewiwin tobacco on a plug I clear missed first time around.

10 Mar 2022 - Midewiwin tobacco re-seed on missed peat plug starting to sprout. 1000 year tobacco just starting to sprout, no spiderweb roots yet.

13 March 2022 - 1000 Year Old tobacco standing up nicely. Nothing else sprouting yet. according to the sprouting schedule, the hemp should be showing something now, but nothing. I'll give them a month, to 3 April, before I incinerate the little bastards. Some seeds sprout later than others. Last fall I had tobacco still sprouting a month later.

So, the hemp should be showing, but it isn't. The poppies and pampas grass still have time. The quinoa? That crap is gonna have to fight through the mold, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope for it.

We had a winter storm that dumped about 6 inches of snow on us from 2 am Saturday to about 4 pm Saturday, then the temperatures dropped to about 10 degrees F last night. Don't know if any of the outdoors stuff survived that yet or not. I reckon time will tell, so I'm gonna crack open another beer and wait some more.

On the bright side, for my tobacco magnate aspirations, every single peat plug with tobacco in it has at least two seedlings so far, and some have up to 10. that's gonna be a pain to thin out when the time comes, but it beats the hell out of the no-show for the rest of the stuff! So I should have at least 24 tobacco plants of two different varieties, assuming they all survive and the damp-off doesn't mow them down again.

.

[Ninurta]

ain't nothing but a thang.



     

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[GeauxHomeLittleD]

Update from Kdog's castle:

Have 6 different types of bedding plants down and have 14 different types of seeds planted. After cold spell this weekend will plant potatoes, yams, a few different types of onions and garlic. Planted one pot of flowers but will pick up more this weekend (to draw more bees). Need more seed pots, I have 4 other types of seeds to plant. 

I am happy to say many of the seeds I saved from veggies and fruits last year and I will be growing from some scraps as well (experimented with that over the winter and it works well). Also got my hummingbird feeder hung for this year- those fast moving little wings help out with pollinating as well.

Happy growing everyone! 

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Update from Kdog's castle:

Have 6 different types of bedding plants down and have 14 different types of seeds planted. After cold spell this weekend will plant potatoes, yams, a few different types of onions and garlic. Planted one pot of flowers but will pick up more this weekend (to draw more bees). Need more seed pots, I have 4 other types of seeds to plant. 

I am happy to say many of the seeds I saved from veggies and fruits last year and I will be growing from some scraps as well (experimented with that over the winter and it works well). Also got my hummingbird feeder hung for this year- those fast moving little wings help out with pollinating as well.

Happy growing everyone! 

I have not started my garbage garden yet. I have been so busy. I am getting the chance to post now, only because I got a break here at work, and I am by myself.

My garden last year didn't yeild well, because I planted it in the wrong spot. It got full sun all day, and the Florida sun cooked them on the vine.

I am trying another spot down on the edge of the woods and near the pond. I just hope it doesn't become a critter hang out.

Noticed in the woods last week about five avocado trees growing. All about mid calf high.

My Mom had planned to try to sprout them, and it didn't look like anything was happening. I got tired of changing the water, so I just threw them out in the woods.

Go figure.

I may transplant a few. If I get the time.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

I have not started my garbage garden yet. I have been so busy. I am getting the chance to post now, only because I got a break here at work, and I am by myself.

My garden last year didn't yeild well, because I planted it in the wrong spot. It got full sun all day, and the Florida sun cooked them on the vine.

I am trying another spot down on the edge of the woods and near the pond. I just hope it doesn't become a critter hang out.

Noticed in the woods last week about five avocado trees growing. All about mid calf high.

My Mom had planned to try to sprout them, and it didn't look like anything was happening. I got tired of changing the water, so I just threw them out in the woods.

Go figure.

I may transplant a few. If I get the time.

My problem here is that in springtime old man winter keeps storming back into the room and yelling "And another thing....".

Growing season isn't nearly as long in northern Kentucky as it was in SE Texas and a small apartment doesn't give too much space to start too many things at once so I have to do everything in stages.

That is wonderful about the avocados! Definitely try to transplant a couple but I would leave the others- if it ain't broke don't fix it!

A lot of plants don't like full sun all day. Try to find a spot that gets different amounts of sun at different times of the day. I've found that tomatoes, squash and eggplant like evening sun, okra and peppers of all kinds prefer morning sun, corn and beans like full sun, etc. One of the reasons farmers are so picky about where they plant. Fortunately our patio gets sun in different areas at different times- also you can move planters around if an area doesn't suit them.

May all of our gardens be full, abundant and tasty!

[Ninurta]

I was gonna post this update last night, but too much rum, and I'm training myself not to "drunk-post", because it sometimes has unintended consequences...

Anyhow...

17 March 2022 update

Two weeks in, and still no sign of nothin' but the tobacco, which is doing great. I had to move ALL of the quinoa plugs into quarantine, and so far NONE of them are sprouting, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope for the quinoa.

No hemp sprouts so far. No pampas grass sprouting so far. Nothing but tobacco.

SO - I'm just going to order myself a straw hat and a white suit, and grow a goatee so I can become a gentleman tobacco baron.

Maybe I'll get a cane to go along with the outfit and complete the look.

6 inches of snow last weekend, then 60's and 70;s in temperatures all week, but since a weekend is coming up again, wouldn't you know it, they are calling for snow again tomorrow.

.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

I was gonna post this update last night, but too much rum, and I'm training myself not to "drunk-post", because it sometimes has unintended consequences...

Anyhow...

17 March 2022 update

Two weeks in, and still no sign of nothin' but the tobacco, which is doing great. I had to move ALL of the quinoa plugs into quarantine, and so far NONE of them are sprouting, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope for the quinoa.

No hemp sprouts so far. No pampas grass sprouting so far. Nothing but tobacco.

SO - I'm just going to order myself a straw hat and a white suit, and grow a goatee so I can become a gentleman tobacco baron.

Maybe I'll get a cane to go along with the outfit and complete the look.

6 inches of snow last weekend, then 60's and 70;s in temperatures all week, but since a weekend is coming up again, wouldn't you know it, they are calling for snow again tomorrow.

.

Now THAT paints an interesting picture!

[Ninurta]

I was gonna post this update last night, but too much rum, and I'm training myself not to "drunk-post", because it sometimes has unintended consequences...

Anyhow...

17 March 2022 update

Two weeks in, and still no sign of nothin' but the tobacco, which is doing great. I had to move ALL of the quinoa plugs into quarantine, and so far NONE of them are sprouting, so I'm not holding out a lot of hope for the quinoa.

No hemp sprouts so far. No pampas grass sprouting so far. Nothing but tobacco.

SO - I'm just going to order myself a straw hat and a white suit, and grow a goatee so I can become a gentleman tobacco baron.

Maybe I'll get a cane to go along with the outfit and complete the look.

6 inches of snow last weekend, then 60's and 70;s in temperatures all week, but since a weekend is coming up again, wouldn't you know it, they are calling for snow again tomorrow.

.

Now THAT paints an interesting picture!

Too much? Would it be the wardrobe equivalent of drunk-posting... maybe "drunk-dressing"?

Would a shoe-string neck tie complete the image?

.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

So far I have bush cucumbers, mammoth sunflowers, marigolds and some green beans sprouting out of 14 different kinds of seeds planted. My bedding plants are doing okay so far, some better than others. Lettuce and lemon balm are doing the best!

Have my potato bags ready to plant but holding off until after cold spell (expecting snow tomorrow). My other planters were easy enough to move in temporarily but big-assed potato bags? Too heavy and would take up too much room since it already is like living in a plant nursery in the apartment. Plants are loving the humidifier! 

Learning that some stuff adores grow lights and some detest them. Lots of experimentation happening with those.

Have some onion scraps in bowls of water that are sprouting beautiful greens. Will need planting very soon.

I had shoved some strawberry plants that were done for the season last year into a long planter that I leave out on the patio all year and had looked dead, even cutting them back to nubs. They have sprung back to life and are growing like crazy and are looking almost healthier than my newly planted strawberries so this year hopefully I will have 4 varieties to choose from for snacking instead of 2.

Will update after cold spell. Tired of old man winter, fickle bastard!

[MissBeck]

Fantastic posts everyone!

I'm skipping the garden this year as I took down my greenhouse last year to move it to another position, but that never got done, so this year I am concentrating on relocating stuff in the garden and get it ready for next year.

[Ninurta]

So far I have bush cucumbers, mammoth sunflowers, marigolds and some green beans sprouting out of 14 different kinds of seeds planted. My bedding plants are doing okay so far, some better than others. Lettuce and lemon balm are doing the best!

Several years ago when I was  young man, I was rambling around one spring looking for wild greens, and about half way up a mountain I found a clearing in the woods, and in the middle of that clearing was an odd plant I had never seen before. it was odd because I thought I had seen it before, but not quite. Then it dawned on me that it looked almost exactly like catnip which grew there in abundance, but was the wrong shade of green - it was a much lighter green that it ought to be for catnip.

Curious and perplexed, and thinking maybe it just wasn't getting enough sun in that clearing, I went to examine it more closely. Now catnip has a very distinctive smell when you pick a leaf and shred it, so that's just what I did to see if it was just a sickly catnip plant or not. Imagine my surprise when the scent that assailed my nose smelled just like a lemon! It wasn't even that it wasn't catnip-y, but that strong scent of lemon growing wild in these mountains threw me.

I think that may have been Lemon Balm or Verbena, although I can't be sure. I've never seen it anywhere else to confirm the identification. That one, single, lonely plant out in the middle of nowhere is the only time I've ever encountered it in all my ramblings.

---------------------------

Two days ago, I saw my first lady bugs of the year. Yesterday I saw the first dandelion in bloom. Leaf buds have not yet appeared on the trees, but spring is on it's way nonetheless.

A couple days ago, mild tragedy struck. I've been setting my little plantation outside during the day to take advantage of what sun comes. That day was a windy day, and on windy days I have a little weight that I set on top of the clear cover to keep the wind from blowing it off, but the wind that day was a little stouter than I had estimated, and at some point the wind blew the weight off, and then it blew the clear cover off, exposing the seedlings to the ravages of the elements. wind blew several of them over, just bent 'em to slap the dirt and stay down. Looked like the results of a miniature cyclone in a miniature forest.

It didn't get all of them, and the blown over plants haven't died yet, but it's clear that only the strong survive around these parts!

I have since developed a different system - I put a couple of pieces of scotch tape on the lid to clamp it down to the tray now before I set it out. That seems to be working so far.

It's depressing that nothing but the tobacco has sprouted so far. the tobacco - both varieties - is thriving like weeds other than the blown over weaklings, but still nothing else.

I'll give it another week or two before I go ahead and order my all-white Tobacco Baron suit.


.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

Several years ago when I was  young man, I was rambling around one spring looking for wild greens, and about half way up a mountain I found a clearing in the woods, and in the middle of that clearing was an odd plant I had never seen before. it was odd because I thought I had seen it before, but not quite. Then it dawned on me that it looked almost exactly like catnip which grew there in abundance, but was the wrong shade of green - it was a much lighter green that it ought to be for catnip.

Curious and perplexed, and thinking maybe it just wasn't getting enough sun in that clearing, I went to examine it more closely. Now catnip has a very distinctive smell when you pick a leaf and shred it, so that's just what I did to see if it was just a sickly catnip plant or not. Imagine my surprise when the scent that assailed my nose smelled just like a lemon! It wasn't even that it wasn't catnip-y, but that strong scent of lemon growing wild in these mountains threw me.

I think that may have been Lemon Balm or Verbena, although I can't be sure. I've never seen it anywhere else to confirm the identification. That one, single, lonely plant out in the middle of nowhere is the only time I've ever encountered it in all my ramblings.

---------------------------

Two days ago, I saw my first lady bugs of the year. Yesterday I saw the first dandelion in bloom. Leaf buds have not yet appeared on the trees, but spring is on it's way nonetheless.

A couple days ago, mild tragedy struck. I've been setting my little plantation outside during the day to take advantage of what sun comes. That day was a windy day, and on windy days I have a little weight that I set on top of the clear cover to keep the wind from blowing it off, but the wind that day was a little stouter than I had estimated, and at some point the wind blew the weight off, and then it blew the clear cover off, exposing the seedlings to the ravages of the elements. wind blew several of them over, just bent 'em to slap the dirt and stay down. Looked like the results of a miniature cyclone in a miniature forest.

It didn't get all of them, and the blown over plants haven't died yet, but it's clear that only the strong survive around these parts!

I have since developed a different system - I put a couple of pieces of scotch tape on the lid to clamp it down to the tray now before I set it out. That seems to be working so far.

It's depressing that nothing but the tobacco has sprouted so far. the tobacco - both varieties - is thriving like weeds other than the blown over weaklings, but still nothing else.

I'll give it another week or two before I go ahead and order my all-white Tobacco Baron suit.


.

Don't give up on your seedlings yet! They might just need more water or sunlight to germinate as well as more time. What it says on seed packets is not set in stone and lots of variables play in.

When weather is nice and I put my seed trays outside I cover them in Saran wrap but sometimes even that isn't enough with the wind. Here also only the strong survive! There are things I grew down in bayou country that just wont grow here no matter what I try, and the growing season is so much shorter here. *le sigh*

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

@"Ninurta" 

My baby lemon balm:

[Ninurta]

Don't give up on your seedlings yet! They might just need more water or sunlight to germinate as well as more time. What it says on seed packets is not set in stone and lots of variables play in.

When weather is nice and I put my seed trays outside I cover them in Saran wrap but sometimes even that isn't enough with the wind. Here also only the strong survive! There are things I grew down in bayou country that just wont grow here no matter what I try, and the growing season is so much shorter here. *le sigh*

Some times, it's best to get seed locally, for plants that have had a few generations to acclimate to the local conditions and growing season. Some times that isn't possible.

That's why I went out last fall to try to find seed for peppermint, goosefoot (to replace the quinoa), and catnip. I couldn't find any peppermint at all where I used to gather it from, the goosefoot was not in bloom yet so I missed out on that, and the catnip, well, I snapped a flower head off of it and brought that home and set it in a cup of water on the deck to mature and set seed. I also brought back a goosefoot cutting to try to get it to root, but since I didn't know what I was doing, the goosefoot failed to root.

The catnip lived for about another month. I dunno if it set see or not. I was going to try it this spring, but the cats around here would probably wallow it to death before it could get much past sprouting, so I have to develop a plan for it. every time I get the baggie out with the dried flower head in it to see if i can find any seed, the cat suddenly wants to be my best friend, and is so annoying about it that I can't manage to examine for seed.

The hemp seed came from an area of Italy that is supposed to have about the same conditions and growing season as here, but if it don't sprout, it can't thrive, no matter the conditions.

I know the pampas grass is viable, as I sprouted a setting of it before, so I'm not quite sure where I went south with it this time around.

The quinoa was just an experiment to see if I could get it to sprout. so far, I haven't been able to, but I'm still waiting.

The dirt here outdoors ain't no good for farming. It can barely grow grass in my yard. I need to import some dirt and create some raised seed beds out in the yard for eating crops, but that's a big task I'm not up to this year.

.

[Ninurta]

@"Ninurta" 

My baby lemon balm:

It's hard to tell, but that does look a little like that isolated plant I found up in the mountain. The leaves look kind of catnip-ish, but they seem to be a bit darker green than I recall.

It's soon going to be time to thin out and cull the tobacco seedlings for the first culling. They're getting a little thick on the pellets.

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[GeauxHomeLittleD]

@"Ninurta" 

My baby lemon balm:

It's hard to tell, but that does look a little like that isolated plant I found up in the mountain. The leaves look kind of catnip-ish, but they seem to be a bit darker green than I recall.

It's soon going to be time to thin out and cull the tobacco seedlings for the first culling. They're getting a little thick on the pellets.

.

We have a friend that grew tobacco last year in raised beds filled with potting soil and they did really well so if your soil isn't optimal that could well be the way to go. He doesn't smoke but did it just to see if he could and was successful.

[NightskyeB4Dawn]

Two days ago, I saw my first lady bugs of the year. Yesterday I saw the first dandelion in bloom. Leaf buds have not yet appeared on the trees, but spring is on it's way nonetheless.

A couple days ago, mild tragedy struck. I've been setting my little plantation outside during the day to take advantage of what sun comes. That day was a windy day, and on windy days I have a little weight that I set on top of the clear cover to keep the wind from blowing it off, but the wind that day was a little stouter than I had estimated, and at some point the wind blew the weight off, and then it blew the clear cover off, exposing the seedlings to the ravages of the elements. wind blew several of them over, just bent 'em to slap the dirt and stay down. Looked like the results of a miniature cyclone in a miniature forest.

It didn't get all of them, and the blown over plants haven't died yet, but it's clear that only the strong survive around these parts!

I have since developed a different system - I put a couple of pieces of scotch tape on the lid to clamp it down to the tray now before I set it out. That seems to be working so far.

It's depressing that nothing but the tobacco has sprouted so far. the tobacco - both varieties - is thriving like weeds other than the blown over weaklings, but still nothing else.

I'll give it another week or two before I go ahead and order my all-white Tobacco Baron suit.


.

have been humbled again. I really need to spend more time on my knees.

My garbage garden is not doing well at all. I spent a good amount of time with caring, weeding, and watering, with no results.

Yet the area where I dump the veggie waste is doing great. The stuff I touch requires a lot of care and attention, then dies. The area where I just throw it out and leave it to God, is growing well.

I think there may be a lesson in there somewhere.

[GeauxHomeLittleD]

@"Ninurta" 

I know you're worried about your seedlings, heck I was starting to get worried about some of mine as well! So this is what I did and now I have new seedlings sprouting up every time I turn around!

I got me a cheap, misting spray bottle for a dollar and started misting all of me seed starter trays about 3 times per day. Now I have new seedlings sprouting up every few hours! It is working much better than just giving them a larger drink of water once per day!

If you haven't tried it maybe give it a day in court and see what happens?

I woke up to carrots, corn and summer squash sprouting this morning with no signs of life last night.

[Ninurta]

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[Ninurta]

Yesterday marked one month since the seed were all planted.

Tobacco is doing pretty good both varieties. The Midewiwin is doing better than the "1000 Year Old" tobacco, but both are doing well enough. They are starting to bring in their first two true leaves, so it's soon going to be time to thin them out. Some peat plugs ain't going to need much thinning, but others are starting to look like tiny forests.

Some have fallen over and are dying, but I don't know if that is due to damp-off or the wind blowing the tray cover off and flattening the seedlings. Since the weight I was using to hold the lid on the greenhouse when I put them out to get sun wasn't enough, I hit upon the idea to tape the lid down. That has worked so far, but was a little late for some of them, it seems.

Nothing else sprouted.

I'm going to call the hemp plantation "dead", and try something else. I have a few grow books that I'm going to have to research for tips, but I still have a few more seeds left, to experiment on. Dope dealing neighbors appear to have moved out, so no seed to come from that quarter. What I got to work with now is all I got to work with.

Since we don't buy milk by the gallon any more, I'm going to use an old coffee can as a container to try to sprout some more of the pampas grass. The milk jug worked before, but  a coffee can ought to do as well. Peat plugs didn't work at all for it.

And I'm going to try some red quinoa from a different batch. I'll plant it about a quarter inch deep this time, because surface sewing didn't work at all. Plus, the surface exposure left it vulnerable to mold, and that didn't help, not even a little bit.

No photos today, as the only thing growing is the tobacco. It looks the same as it did in the previous photos, just a tiny bit taller at around 1 1/2 inches tall, and is sprouting tiny real leaves that don't really have much definition yet.

No poppies have sprouted. Not from the grocery store seed, and not from the overseas seed. Come to think of it, the overseas poppy seed came from the same source as the hemp seed, and both appear dead. There is probably a lesson to be had in there somewhere. I also got some Mediterranean Palm Tree seeds from that same source, but it seems they might not be worth fooling with at all.

National Hemp seems to have closed up shop and moved on. As I understand it, they had high hopes  of working with local farmers to grow CBD hemp, and they would then buy it and process it into CBD products. But the last 3 or 4 times we've driven past them, their sign has gone dark and no traffic in the parking lot, so they appear to have moved on. Probably couldn't get enough farmers to consider hemp as a cash crop after the government fucked us all out of growing tobacco, OR maybe they couldn't find any seed that could sprout, either... OR, maybe the apparent market rate on TEN GODDAMNED DOLLARS PER SEED was a little too steep for commercial farmers here in Poverty Land.

I acquired 100 seeds for 12.5 cents per seed, carefully selected for high CBD and low THC to stay within legal guidelines of both the Feds and the State, but actually got 125 seeds, so that dropped the effective per-seed price to 10 cents. A far cry from TEN GODDAMNED DOLLARS per seed. But I only planned to grow 4 plants to maturity for personal use. A commercial farmer, with acres to fill with seed, would go broke early at even 10 cents a seed, much less TEN GODDAMNED DOLLARS a seed!

Between the seed price and the potential for governmental buggery of the farmers, It's no damned wonder to me they all decided to plant their acreage in corn instead. We've seen that movie before around here where the government comes in a drops the bottom out of the market price for cash crops and leaves the farmer holding the bag.

You'd think a smallholder could get 4 plants out of 125 seeds, but maybe not... and so, there is no way in hell I'm going to pay TEN GODDAMNED DOLLARS per seed for seed I can't get to sprout.

We'll see what the tobacco does, and whether any of the attempts to get late sprouts from the rest of the stuff bear any fruit at all.

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